Tiger Riot – Look Up!

After listening to Tiger Riot’s latest full length, Look Up! intermittently over the past several weeks, I’m still not entirely sure if I’ve formed a concrete opinion.  The disk finds the Long Island, New York band ignoring the typical segregation between slick power-pop and intricately detailed fluttery indie.  Its part Fall Out Boy and Look Mexico played with the hazy musk of Portugal. The Man.  Like an opportunistic war-time defector changing sides regularly, the band hops back and forth between the great divide, demonstrating allegiance to often competing camps.

Look Up! kicks off with “Time Is On Your Side,” a comparatively cautious introduction to the band’s slick brand of pop/rock.  The song drags in slowly under a cascade of echoic chords – not unlike U2 orAngels & Airwaves’ signature flutters.  Vocalist Christopher Tagliaferro pipes up, and rides in softly, sure to showcase his durable pitch and hefty range along the way.  At times he brings to mind The Early November’s Ace Enders, but with more spunk.  The band makes similar performances on “Daewoo On Fire,” “Smash Adams” and “The Trap.”  It’s worth noting the band makes a few odd inclusions from time to time.  For example, “A Penny Saved Is A Penny Saved” throws in some obnoxious synth blasts that you’d expect more from typical Fueled By Ramen fare than something this individualized.

Tht being said, their more sensationalist side plays out early on for tracks like “Damn These Electric Pants.”  Here the band pops their synth lid for some very Therefortomorrow-esque industrial electronic tones.  I’m really not a fan of said band, so thankfully this side comes across with more tact more often than not.  When they start to feel like a jazzier version of Panic! At The Disco as per “These Awful Words” and ”A Centre For Ants” for instance, the bounce of organ keys and a peppy bassline succeed at reeling listeners back in.  A personal favourite hides deep within the former, taking the form of a spastic panic attack including a momentary comparison with screamo outfit La Dispute.  On “Starship Troopers The Shower Scene” (clearly the band has a good humour to them) Tiger Riot even fuses their chords with an electric energy in the vein of Minus The Bear’s OMNI.

With Look Up!, Tiger Riot takes chances.  Not all of them succeed, but they’re all entertaining.  I still don’t know what to think of Look Up! as a whole, but I can safely say there are some great stand alone moments and tracks.  No element suffers from overuse, nor are the less successful ones dwelled upon.  Ultimately the album rewards those with short attention spans while respecting the role of musical uniformity – consistently inconsistent, in a good way.